When it comes to brake rotors, cooling fins seem to be the way to go for many companies looking to beat the heat. Popularized by the Shimano Ice-Tech Freeza rotors, other companies like Jagwire are spinning their take on the technology.
Introduced at Eurobike 2014, Jagwire’s CR1 brake rotor is about to get another upgrade with the new CR2…
Why introduce another iteration of their finned rotor? It seems to come down to durability and ease of production. While the CR1 uses a three piece design with the steel outer rotor, riveted aluminum cooling fins and an alloy carrier, the CR2 eliminates a lot of the complexity with a single piece of aluminum. Instead of the fins riveted to the rotor, they are now one piece with the carrier which will make them both easier to manufacture and reduce the potential for any durability issues. Shown here in prototype form, expect to see a production version as soon as Eurobike or Interbike.
Perhaps not as exciting as the new brake rotors, Jagwire’s new Pro Polished Inner Wires are just as important. Jagwire took the uncoated cable to the next level with their Elite Ultra Slick which uses a high level of polishing to offer an uncoated cable that is incredibly smooth. The benefit is that there is no coating to flake off after use meaning consistent performance. The down side is that the process is expensive making the cables a premium option.
The new Pro Polished Inner Wires use the same process, just less of it. That works out to performance that is almost as good but as low as $12 a cable. The Pro Polished Inner Wires also represent the end of Teflon coated cables for Jagwire – the polished cables are just as slick, but without the need for an additional coating. Expect to see these this winter in both brake and shift with individual cables and file boxes available.
